Simulation of Optimal Photonic Nanopillar Design for Solid-State Quantum Emitter in Diamond

This work explores the photonic enhancement of a nitrogen-vacancy center quantum emitter in order to achieve improvement in photon collection efficiency. Finite element methods were used to simulate the effect of diamond nanopillars on the emission pattern and the resulting collectible photon efficiency. All emitter dipole orientations in a <111> diamond substrate were considered, with nanopillar diameters ranging from 10 nm to 1000 nm. When compared to the bulk emission, the collection efficiency was found to have an optimal enhancement of up to 60%, which is nearly 4 times the intrinsic bulk emission value for on-axis nitrogen-vacancy centers. The collection efficiency enhancement in these proposed structures could improve the measurement fidelity of the quantum state, resulting in advancement toward real-world applications of quantum technology.